Guardiola charged for ribbon supporting Catalan independence campaigners
The Football Association charged Pep Guardiola on Friday for wearing a political message, and has given the Manchester City manager until March 5 to respond.
The disciplinary procedure relates to his wearing of a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned politicians campaigning for Catalan independence. BBC Sport's Richard Conway believes Guardiola ignored two formal warnings from the FA regarding the ribbon, and then wore it again in Monday's FA Cup defeat at Wigan Athletic.
I may be wrong... but I sense a major row is brewing over this. Given the strength of Guardiola’s convictions and the importance of the Catalan movement to him I don’t sense he’ll easily back down to “FA kit and advertising regulation A 4.”
— Richard Conway, BBC (@richard_conway) February 23, 2018
Guardiola has spoken in support of Catalan independence in the past and explained his decision to wear the ribbon back in November.
"Like everybody knows, hopefully, sooner or later I can stop wearing it," he told BBC Sport.
"All the politicians that are in prison, I hope they can leave and go back home soon with their families and continue living the lives they deserve."
Guardiola is able to wear the ribbon for Champions League matches because UEFA's rules stipulate political messages must be deemed offensive to be rendered inappropriate. In contrast, the FA has a blanket ban on all political messages.